Slicing machine feed control apparatus



1967 M. E. TOBY 3,358,724

SLICING MACHINE FEED CONTROL APPARATUS Filed Feb. 17, 1966 I 4 Sheets-Sheet l I N VEN 7 URv T Z BY 755) TORNEYS M. E. TOBY Dec. 19, 1967 SLICING MACHINE FEED CONTROL APPARATUS 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Feb. 17, 1966 INVENTOR.

/7/;x. 7b5r TORNEYS M. E. TOBY Dec. 19, 1967 SLICING MACHINE FEED CONTROL APPARATUS 4 Sheets-$heet 5 I Filed Feb, 17, 1966 INVENTOR. MAX 5. TOBY TTORNEYS Dec. 19, 1967 M E, TOBY 3,358,724

SLICING MACHINE FEED CONTROL APPARATUS Filed Feb, 17, 1966 4 S eets-Sheet 4 INVENTOR. Max TOBY 477' EY-S United States Patent 3,358,724 SLICING MACHINE FEED CONTROL APPARATUS Max E. Toby, 1255 Shafter Ave., San Francisco, Calif. 94124 Filed Feb. 17, 1966, Ser. No. 528,142 Claims. (Cl. 146-101) This invention relates generally to high speed machines for slicing and stacking material, such as loaves of luncheon meat, and is more particularly directed towards such apparatus which is designed to insure full uniform stacks of product notwithstanding intermittent stopping and starting of the slicing operation.

There is now commercially available a number of different machines for automatically slicing loaves of luncheon meat, cheese or the like and forming stacks of preselected number of the slices. A typical machine of this type, co-invented by the instant inventor, is disclosed in U.S. Patent No. 2,752,968, issued July 3, 1956, titled, Material Advancing and Slicing Machine. As disclosed in such patent, these machines generally include a slicing head having a cutting blade, and a feed advancing mechanism for feeding the meat or other material to be sliced into the path of the blade. A counter is also usually provided on these machines to indicate when a predetermined number of slices has been cut. The counter is also generally operatively connected to a slice accumulator which transfers a predetermined number of slices forming a stack to a scale for weighing and subsequent packaging. The counter can also provide for limited pauses in the slicing of the material, if desired or necessary. For example, such pauses are sometimes desirable between the slicing of successive stacks of slices to permit suificient time between the stacks for subsequent operations such as stack removal, weighing or the like.

In practice, it is often necessary for the operator of a slicing machine to stop the slicing operation. When one person is operating a machine, for example, it must generally be stopped by that person before he can load it with further loaves to be sliced. It also becomes necessary to stop the slicing of the machine when a delay occurs in the weighing or packaging of the slice stacks. If the slicing were not stopped, the stacks would be formed and accumulate faster than they could be properly removed.

Presently, slicing is stopped by turning off the machine. The machine gradually slows down and the result is an incomplete, misaligned stack of slices. It is then necessary to discard these slices or manually count, stack and weight them. The same undesirable result will ocour when the machine is started until the slicer blade reaches its full speed.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to enable an operator of a slicing machine to selectively stop the slicing operation without the necessity of turning the machine off with the resulting above mentioned undesirable variation in blade speed and resulting stack misalignment.

Another object of the invention is to provide a mechanism for a slicing machine which, upon actuation, will stop the machine from further slicing only after the last slice of a predetermined number of slices is cut, so that only complete stacks are provided.

A further object of my invention is to provide a mechanism as above described which after the slicing has been interrupted, will only permit the machine to restart slicing when it is conditioned to start slicing the first slice of a stack of a predetermined number of slices.

The invention possesses other objects and features of advantage, some of which, with the foregoing, will be set forth in the following description of a preferred form of the invention which is illustrated in the drawings accompanying and forming part of the specification. It is to be understood, however, that variations in the showing made by the said drawings and description may be adopted within the scope of the invention as set forth in the claims.

Referring to said drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a side elevational view of the slicing machine of the present invention with the lower portion of the supporting frame and other portions of the mechanism unimportant to the instant invention being omitted;

FIGURE 2 is a cross-sectional view taken in a plane indicated by the line 2-2 of FIGURE 1 depicting the slicing head, its driving mechanism, and the driving mechanism for the feed advancing apparatus.

FIGURE 3 is a view taken generally in the plane indicated by the line '33 of FIGURE 1; and again depicting the slicing head, its driving mechanism, and the driving mechanism for the feed advancing apparatus as well as portions of the mechanism of the instant invention.

FIGURE 4 is a view of the rear portion of the slicing machine taken in a plane indicated by the line 4-4 of FIGURE 1, showing the slice counter and a portion of the mechanism of the present invention, with details of the apparatus unimportant to the present invention being omitted;

FIGURE 5 is a perspective view of the mechanism of the inst-ant invention with all supporting structure therefore being deleted; for reasons of clarity.

'FIGURE 6 is an exploded perspective view of a portion of the mechanism shown in FIGURE 5; and

FIGURES 7 and 8 are generally diagrammatic for simplifying the description of the operation of the mechanism and respectively showing the mechanism in its unactuated and actuated positions.

Broadly, the invention accomplishes the foregoing objects by providing apparatus which, upon actuation, will interrupt or control the feed of the sliceable material to the slicing head without interfering with the normal continuous operation of the slicing mechanism. This feed control apparatus is responsive to the counter and to the slicing mechanism by interrupting the advance of the material toward the slicing mechanism only after the last slice of a stack has been sliced. This is true irrespective of the portion of the machines cycle in which an operator actuates the mechanism. Thus, the machine will al ways provide full stacks, when the feed is interrupted, thereby eliminating the necessity of manually counting, weighing, and stacking slices. After stopping the feed of the material, the feed control mechanism of this invention will only allow the feeding to begin again when the slicing machine is ready to begin slicing on a new cycle, i.e., on the first slice of a stack. When slicing is again begun, a full stack is therefore also always provided.

Referring now to the drawings, there is shown a slicing machine generally referred to by the reference numeral 11. The machine includes a supporting frame work 12 (only the upper portion of which is depicted) having a meat support table 13 thereon. A feed advancing mechanism 14 is provided on the table for advancing meat or other product toward the slicing mechanism 16 (FIG- URES 2 and 3) disposed within a housing 17.

This feed advancing mechanism can be of any suitable type, but is desirably of the type coinvented by the instant inventor and disclosed in U.S. Patent 3,162,226, issued Dec. 22, 1964, titled, Slicing Machine Feed Apparatus. Such mechanism generally includes spaced upper and lower chain belt conveyors 18 and 19, respectively, for engaging the tops and bottoms of the loaves of material to be sliced. These conveyors move synchronously toward the cutting head to advance the material. As will be apparent from the description of the feed advance drive 7 mechanism set forth below, the conveyors move forward intermittently at a rate of one increment of movement of advance for every rotation of the cutting blade. The feed advancing mechanism is also provided with suitable adjustment controls and other features which are not pertinent to this invention, and reference is made to the aforesaid patent for a complete description of such mechanism and its operation.

The slicing mechanism includes a circular cutting blade 21 mounted eccentrically on a rotary slicing head member 23. The blade 21 is suitably secured to a shaft 22 which is, in turn, journalled within the slicing head 23. Blade 21 and head 23 are independently rotatable so that as the blade itself rotates, it is moved in an orbital path by the head member. Thus, rotation of the head brings the independently rotating blade down and across a loaf of material to be sliced, imparting a slashing cut thereto, and then such head rotation raises the blade to disengage it from the material.

Rotary movement is imparted to the head 23 by means of a link chain 24 which passes about a sprocket 26 at the head and over a driving sprocket 27. The blade 21 is rotated, through gearing, by a link chain 28 which passes about a sprocket 29 and a drive sprocket 31. For a detailed description of the manner in which the above described independent rotary motions of the blade 21 and the head 23 are obtained from the sprockets 26 and 29, reference is made to my first mentioned patent, 2,752,968.

Drive sprockets 27 and 31 are suitably secured to a driving shaft 32 which is rotated by belts 33 passing about sheaves 34 secured to the shaft. A constant or variable speed motor (not shown) can be utilized to drive the belts 33.

As mentioned before, the feed advancing mechanism is driven by the slicing mechanism. More particularly, the slicing head 23 has a generally oval-shaped cam 36 adjacent its inner end, and through mechanism 38, later to be described, cam 36 imparts oscillatory motion to a segment gear 37. Segment gear 37 engages a pinion gear 39 which, through an overrunning clutch mechanism 42, intermittently rotates a drive shaft 41 in only one direction. The shaft 41 in turn is arranged to intermittently drive the feed conveyors 18 and 19 as explained in the aforesaid Patent No. 3,162,226 to incrementally advance the material to be sliced to the cutter head.

The mechanism 38 for oscillating the segment gear 37 includes a bell crank 43 having on the free end of its short arm a cam follower roller 44 in engagement with the peripheral cam surface of cam 36. Bell crank 43 is pivotally mounted on a shaft 45 at the junction of its short and long arms, and the free end of its long arm has a tension spring 46 secured thereto for urging the bell crank in a counterclockwise direction as viewed in FIG- URE 3 and thus maintaining the roller 44 in engagement with the cam 36. One end of a rocker arm 47 is pivotally mounted to the longer arm of the bell crank 43 by means of a pin 48. A pair of members 49 and 51 depend from the rocker arm 47. Member 49 is in the form of a link pivotally connected to the free end of rocker arm 47, whereas member 51 constitutes a moveable fulcrum pivotally connected to a block 52 adjustably secured within a slot 53 in the rocker arm intermediate the link 49 and pin 48.

The other end of link 4% is pivotally secured to a lever 54 which, in turn, is secured to the segment gear 37 to impart oscillatory motion thereto about a shaft 56 on which the lever 54 is mounted. The lower end of member 51 is likewise pivotally mounted on shaft 56. The cam 36 is generally oval shaped in a manner such that the bell crank 43 is oscillated once for every rotation of the slicing head. This results in segment gear 37 and pinion gear 39 advancing, through the clutch mechanism within the clutch 42, the shaft 41 a predetermined distance in one direction. Thus the feed of the material to the cutting blade is advanced intermittently as slices are cut therefrom. The shape of the cam 36 is such that the cutting 4 blade has finished cutting a slice, and the feed is thus advanced between the formation of the slices, i.e., when the blade 21 is out of the path of movement of the advancing meat loaf.

It is to be appreciated that by adjusting the position of block 52 within the slot 53 of rocker arm 4-7, the amount of oscillatory motion imparted to the segment gear 37 can be varied. Thus, the amount of advance of the material into the slicing head can also be varied, thereby enabling slices of different thicknesses to be cut as desired.

The counting mechanism for indicating when a predetermined number of slices has been cut is mounted on the rear of the housing 17. It is driven by the shaft 32 which received its motion from the motor and which also drives the slicing mechanism. More particularly, as is shown in FIGURES 2 and 3, shaft 32 is provided with a pinion gear 57 in engagement with another gear 58. The gear 58 is suitably secured to a shaft 59 passing through the back wall of the housing 17 and which terminates with a beveled gear 61 (FIGURE 4). A second beveled gear 62 cooperates with beveled gear 61 to drive a rod 63. A pinion gear 64 is provided on the free end of the rod 63 in engagement with a gear 66 on one end of an elongated pinion 67 in the counter mechanism (see FIGURE 5). The pinion 67 drives a plurality of counter cam sets 68 through idler gears 69.

The ratio of the gearing between gear 57 on the shaft 32 and the driving gear 71 of each cam set is such that each carn set will rotate at a different speed, with one rotation of each representing a predetermined number of rotations of the slicing head 23. For example, the gearing to one of the cam sets 68 can cause it to rotate once for every six rotations of the slicing head, whereas the gearing to another of the counter cam sets may cause it to rotate once for every seven rotations of the slicing head. Since each rotation of the slicing head represents one slice of material, it can therefore be seen that the individual counter cam sets 68 can be respectively utilized to perform various operations when a stack containing a desired predetermined number of slices corresponding to such set has been cut.

In the embodiment shown in the drawings, each cam set is provided with two cams 72 and 73, and a pair of cam followers 74 and 76 are provided for engagement therewith (see FIGURE 5). The cam followers 74 and 76 are slidably mounted by levers presently to be described on a shaft 77. It is to be appreciated that the cam followers can be slid in unison along the shaft to any one of the cam counting sets desired to set the number of slices to be cut. Lever 78 which is connected to cam follower 74 is pivoted on shaft 77, and operates through linkage 79 (FIGURE 4) and other mechanism (not shown) to transfer a stack of the desired number of slices to a scale or conveyor. More particularly, as the material is sliced, the slices accumulate on the paddles, cam 72 actuates the linkage 79 to rotate these paddles and deposit the stack of slices onto a scale or conveyor beneath the slicing machine. Since the manner in which this is accomplished is not pertinent to the instant invention, the mechanism for performing this operation has not been shown in detail.

The other cam 73 of each cam set is instrumental with respect to the instant invention. As best depicted in FIG- URES 4 through 6, the apparatus of the invention gen- 0 erally includes a stop mechanism 81 for preventing the feed advancing drive mechanism 33 from actuating the feeding mechanism by holding the roller 44 on the bell crank 43 away from the cam 36 in a manner to be more fully explained below. The apparatus also includes linkage mechanism 82 which is responsive to the counter immediately prior to the cutting of the last slice of a stack by placing the stop mechanism in condition to stop the feeding. There is also provided a mechanism 83 which, upon actuation, will cause the stop mechanism to interfere with the feed driving mechanism at the end of the last slice. This mechanism 83 is actuated by means of a switch operated solenoid 84.

In more detail, the linkage mechanism 82 of the invention includes a lever 86 secured to the cam follower roller 76. This lever is keyed to the shaft 77, such that when cam 73 is rotated to the point whereat roller 76 falls within a depression 87 in the cam, the arm 77 is slightly rotated about its axis. Arm 77 is connected by means of universal joints 83 and an intermediate con necting arm 89 to a shaft 91. A lever arm 92 is secured to shaft 91 for rotation therewith, and the lower end of an upwardly extending rod 93 is pivotally secured to the free end of arm 92 for movement therewith. The upper end of rod 93 is pivotally secured to a first end of a lever 94 and the other end of lever 94 is integrally secured to a collar 96 about a pin 97. (see FIGURE 6). The pin 97 also has a spacing collar 98 and a triangular lever plate 99 secured thereto. Rotation of the plate 99 with respect to the pin 97 is prevented in a suitable manner such as by means of a set screw 101 passing through the plate collar flange 102 and engaging the pin 97.

The collar 96 associated with lever 94 is rotatably mounted on the pin 97; and means are provided for imparting counterclockwise rotation (as viewed in FIG- URES and 6) to the lever plate 99. More particularly, a flange 103 depending from the collar 96 has a pin 104 extending slidably through an aperture therein. Pin 104 is provided on one side of the flange 103 with a spring 106 and on the other side with a stop nut 107. Stop nut 107 is suitably secured to the plate 99 such that when the flange 103 bears against the stop nut, it will impart the movement thereof to the lever plate 99. It should be apparent, therefore, that when the lever 94 is moved downward by the rod 93, the collar 96 is rotated counterclockwise and the flange 103 then bears against the nut 107 and thus rotates plate 99 in a counterclockwise direction.

A second upwardly extending rod 108 is pivotally secured to the edge of plate 99 such that when the plate 99 is rotated counterclockwise, the rod is moved downward. Rod 108 passes through a flange 109 on a collar 110, and the upper end of such rod is provided with a compression spring 111 and a retaining cap 112. The collar 110 is suitably secured to a shaft 113 which passes through the back wall of the housing 17 to the stop mechanism 81.

As depicted in both FIGURES 3 and 5, the stop mechanism 81 includes a stop block 114 secured to the rear side face of the longer arm of crank arm 43, and a feed stop dog 115 for engaging the same. The dog 115 is pivotally mounted on a pin 116 and is provided with a notch 117 adjacent an upper corner of one of its edges. A lever crank 118 is secured to the shaft 113 for rotation therewith. This lever has a pin 119 extending therefrom in engagement with the dog 115 in the notch 117. A tension spring 121 is provided between the pin 119 and a pin 122 on the stop dog to assure that the pin 119 is always in engagement with the notch.

The mechanism 83 for causing the stop mechanism 81 to interfere with the feed advance mechanism is best depicted in FIGURES 4 and 5. More particularly, such mechanism includes a solenoid 84 which is connected to a suitable power source, such as the source driving the motor, through a switch 123 (shown schematically). The plunger 124 of the solenoid passes through an aperture in one end of a stop latch 126, and has a compression spring 127 and retaining cap 128 on the opposite side of the latch. Latch 126 is pivotally mounted by a pin 129, and the forward end thereof is normally urged upward by a tension spring 131 connected to a pin 132.

Upon actuation, the solenoid 84 moves the plunger upward and the forward end of latch 126 is pivotally urged downward against the tension of spring 131. The tri- 6 angular lever plate 99 is provided with a notch 133 and the forward end of stop latch 126 is adapted to engage notch 133 after the solenoid is actuated whenever the lever plate 99 is rotated counterclockwise in the manner hereinbefore described.

Operation FIGURES 7 and 8 have been included to simplify the description of the operation of the mechanism of the present invention. That is, these figures depict a compact mechanism which is a mechanical equivalent to the preferred embodiment described with respect to the other figures. The parts of the mechanism of FIGURES 7 and 8 have been provided with primed reference numerals corresponding to the numerals of the equivalent parts of the apparatus just described embodiment. Either the apparatus of the preferred embodiment or the equivalent structure of FIGURES 7 and 8 can be followed for an understanding of the operation of the invention.

As previously mentioned, each cam set 68 of the counter mechanism is geared to make one revolution upon the slicing of a predetermined number of slices. The depression 87 in each of the cams 73 of the sets is positioned that the cam follower roller 76 will enter the depression immediately prior to the end of the cutting of the last slice of the predetermined number. In this regard, the roller 76 is urged to always be in contact with the earns 73 through the linkage mechanism 82 by means of a tension spring 135 connected to a lever extend ing from collar 96. When the roller 76 enters the depression 87, the lever 86 will pivot rod 77 through a small are about its own axis. The remainder of the linkage 82 will then cause rotation of the shaft 113 through a small arc in the counter-clockwise direction. This will cause the pin 119 of the crank lever 118 to bear against stop dog 115 and urge it to pivot clockwise about pin 116 However, the longer arm of the bell crank 43 has not yet been pivoted to its lowermost position at this time since the roller 76 enters the depression prior to the end of the cutting of the last slice and the arm is only in its lowermost position at the end of such cutting. Furthermore, the positioning of the stop 114 on the crank arm and the length of the lower portion of stop dog 115 are so related that the dog can only be pivoted over the stop 114 when the arm does reach its lowermost position. Thus, rather than the dog 115 being pivoted over the stop by the pin 119, the vertical side edge 134 of the dog is forced against the side of the stop. The compression spring 111 on rod 108 allows independent movement between the linkage mechanism 82 and the stop dog so that this partial pivoted movement can take place.

The duration of the depression 87 in the cam 73 is such that the dog 115 is allowed to normally pivot away from the stop 114 before the arm reaches its lowermost position. Furthermore, the depression 87 is so positioned on the cam 73 that the above action occurs during the slicing of the last slice of a predetermined number. Thus, it should be apparent that the linkage 82 places the stop mechanism 81 in condition to interfere with the feed advance mechanism immediately prior to the end of the slicing of the last slice. However, the same linkage, in cooperation with the duration of the depression 87, assures that the stop mechanism does not interfere with the feed mechanism unless the solenoid 84 has been energized.

If an operator desires to stop the machine from slicing, for some reason, such as the loading of more material to be sliced, he need only close the switch 123. This energizes the solenoid 84 and the plunger is drawn upward. This will tend to pivot the latch 126 about the pin 129 against the tension of spring 131. If the counter cam roller 76 is not in the depression 87, the triangular lever plate 99 will be in its normal position. Notch 133 is so related to the length of the forward end of latch 126 that at such time, the latch will be urged against the projecting nub 136 on the plate 99 rather than in engagement with the notch. The spring 127 on the plunger arm 124 assures that the latch is at this time resiliently urged against the lever plate. When the counter roller 76 enters the depression 87, ie near the end of the slicing of the predetermined number of slices, the linkage mechanism 82 will rotate the triangular lever plate in a counterclockwise direction. The forward end of the latch will then be urged into engagement with the notch 133. The plate 99 will thus be prevented from returning to its normal position when the roller 76 leaves the depression 87 of the counting cam. The spring 106 allows movement of the linkage 82 with respect to the lever plate so that this restraint of the plate is possible. With the lever plate being prevented from returning to its lowermost position, dog 115 of the stop mechanism will continue to be urged in a counter clockwise direction as the longer arm of the crank arm 43 reaches its lowermost position. It will then swing over the dog 114 and prevent the longer arm of the crank arm from moving upward. Thus, the cam following roller 44 is held off of the cam 36 and oscillating motion of the arm is prevented. This position of the mechanism is depicted in FIGURE 8, This driving mechanism is thereby stopped from driving this feeding mechanism and advancing material to the cutting blade. Thus, the machine will stop slicing the material, although the blade 21 and head 23 continue uninterrupted.

From the above, it can be seen that the stop dog 115 will only stop the oscillatory motion of crank arm 43 after the longer arm of the crank arm has reached its lowermost position. Because the crank arm only reaches its lowermost position after a slice has been cut, the feeding of the material will not be stopped by the mechanism of the invention while the cutting blade is in the middle of a slice. Furthermore, it will be appreciated that the latch 126 will only engage the lever plate 99 after the counter cam roller 76 enters the depression 87 on the counting cam. Since the latter only happens immediately prior to the end of the slicing of the last slice of a predetermined number, the mechanism 83 will only cause the stop mechanism 81 to prevent the feeding at the end of the slicing of such predetermined number. Thus, irrespective of when the switch 123 is closed, the machine will continue slicing until the last slice of the predetermined number of slices is completely cut.

Once switch 123 is closed and latch 126 engages the lever plate notch 133, dog 113 will continue to hold the crank arm 43 away from the cam 36 until the switch is opened. Therefore, the length of time that the machine does not feed is strictly dependent upon the operator. When the operator opens switch 123, the solenoid 84 is de-encrgized and it no longer maintains the forward end of the latch 126 in engagement with the notch 133. However, the force of compression spring 111 urging lever plate 99 in a clockwise direction is greater than the force of tension spring 131 tending to pull the forward end of latch 126 out of engagement with the notch. Thus, the latch will continue to prevent the lever plate from returning to its normal position and therefore maintain the stop mechanism 81 in a position preventing the feeding of the material. When the counter cam roller '76 enters the depression 87, however, the linkage 82 will tend to rotate the lever plate 99 a small amount in the counterclockwise direction. This eliminates the force on the end of the stop latch enabling the spring 131 to lift the stop latch out of engagement with the lever plate 99.

Thus, when the solenoid 84 is de-energized, the lever plate 99 is not released until the counter roller 76 enters the depression 87, i.e., during the slicing of the last slice of the predetermined number. Even though the lever plate 99 is released at this time, the stop mechanism 31 will not immediately allow operation of the feed drive mechanism. That is, the force of tension spring 46 tending to move the longer arm of crank arm 43 upward will keep the stop 114 in engagement with the bottom of the dog 115 until the cam 36 slightly engages the roller 44. This will occur when the cam is at that point in its travel which would move the longer arm of the crank arm 43 to its lowermost position. The slight engagement is sufficient to release the pressure between the step 11 and the end of the stop dog 115. The stop dog will then swing away from the stop and allow the feed advance mechanism to operate.

It is to be appreciated from the above that when the switch 123 is d s-energized, the mechanism of the invention will not permit the feed advance mechanism to operate until the machine is ready to start slicing on the first slice of the predetermined number. Thus, both when the feed is interrupted and when it is restarted, the mechanism assures that a full stack of the material is sliced.

While the invention has been described with respect to a particular embodiment, it is to be recognized that variations can be made. For example, the counting mechanism need not be of the type disclosed, but could be of an electronic type or other mechanical type. In addition, if it is desired for the slicing machine to provide pauses between each stack of slices, the depressions 87 in the counting cams 73 can be of a longer duration so that the stop dog 115 is not normally pulled away from the stop 114 before the longer arm of the crank arm reaches its lower position but, rather, is allowed to swing over and engage the stop. The feeding of the material to the slicing blade will therefore be interrupted. However, as soon as the counter roller 76 leaves the depression 87, the stop dog will release the crank arm when the slicing head is ready to start slicing on the next slice. As pointed out in the beginning of the specification, this type of feed interruption is desirable in some instances. This interruption though is dependent on the duration of the cam depression 87, and the operator would not be able to selectively control the length of the same. It will also be understood that where the term stack is used, such term is also intended to cover socalled shingling of slices, such as in the manner of packaging bacon.

What is claimed is:

1. In apparatus for cutting slices from a mass of sliceable material, which apparatus includes a feed mechanism for advancing the material along a path of movement toward a slicing mechanism, said slicing mechanism including a blade intermittently crossing said path, and a counter responsive to such intermittent blade movement for counting the slices formed thereby and responding to the cutting of a predetermined number of slices; feed control means operatively connected to said counter and adapted to stop movement of said feed mechanism, means for energizing said control means, said control means including a delay mechanism for maintaining such means inoperative notwithstanding such energization until the slicing of the last slice of said predetermined number and then operating to stop movement of said feed mechanism until de-energization of said control means.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said feed control means is operative to interrupt the advance of said material independently of the continued operation of said slicing mechanism.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein after said feeding is interrupted by said control means, said control means is responsive to said counter and said slicing mechanism upon de-energization by restarting movement of said feed mechanism and permitting the advance of said material into the path of movement of said slicing blade immediately prior to and only when said blade is ready to begin slicing on a first slice of a predetermined number of slices.

4. Apparatus for selectively interrupting the advance of a mass of sliceable material by a feed mechanism driven by a drive mechanism in a slicing machine which also has a slicing head and a slice counter responsive to the slicing of a predetermined number of slices; said apparatus comprising stop mechanism for preventing the driving of said feed mechanism by its drive mechanism, control means for actuating said stop mechanism to prevent driving of said feed mechanism only after the slicing of the last slice of said predetermined number of slices, and energization means actuatable by an operator for energizing said control means.

5. The apparatus for selectively interrupting the advance of a mass of sliceable material according to claim 4 wherein upon de-energization of said control means, said means actuates said stop mechanism to permit driving of said feed mechanism immediately prior to and only when said slicing head is positioned to begin slicing on a first slice of a predetermined number of slices.

6. The apparatus for selectively interrupting the advance of a mass of sliceable material according to claim 4 wherein said control means actuates said stop mechanism to prevent driving of the feed mechanism independently of the continued operation of said slicing head.

7. The apparatus for selectively interrupting the advance of a mass of sliceable material according to claim 4 further including preparatory mechanism responsive to said slice counter immediately prior to the end of the slicing of the last slice of said predetermined number by placing said stop mechanism in condition to prevent said driving.

8. The apparatus for selectively interrupting the advance of a mass of sliceable material in a slicing machine according to claim 7 wherein the drive mechanism for said feed mechanism includes a cam which makes one revolution for each revolution of said slicing head and a cam follower crank arm normally in engagement with said cam; and the stop mechanism of said means includes a stop block on said crank arm, and a stop dog for engaging said stop block to maintain said crank arm out of engagement with said cam.

9. The apparatus for selectively interrupting the advance of a mass of sliceable material in a slicing machine according to claim 8 wherein said preparatory mechanism includes linkage connected to said stop dog and responsive to said counter by urging said stop dog toward stop engagement with said stop block.

10. The apparatus for selectively interrupting the advance of a mass of sliceable material in a slicing machine according to claim 9 wherein said control means includes a solenoid and a stop latch operable by said solenoid to cause said stop dog to move into stopping engagement with said stop block and thereby prevent said crank arm from engaging said cam.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,752,968 7/1956 Toby et al. 14694 2,898,962 8/1959 Burnett 146-l01 X 3,027,924 4/ 1962 Gillman 146-94 W. GRAYDON ABERCROMBIE, Primary Examiner. 

1. IN APPARATUS FOR CUTTING SLICES FROM A MASS OF SLICEABLE MATERIAL, WHICH APPARATUS INCLUDES A FEED MECHANISM FOR ADVANCING THE MATERIAL ALONG A PATH OF MOVEMENT TOWARD A SLICING MECHANISM, SAID SLICING MECHANISM INCLUDING A BLADE INTERMITTENTLY CROSSING SAID PATH, AND A COUNTER RESPONSIVE TO SUCH INTERMITTENT BLADE MOVEMENT FOR COUNTING THE SLICES FORMED THEREBY AND RESPONDING TO THE CUTTING OF A PREDETERMINED NUMBER OF SLICES; FEED CONTROL MEANS OPERATIVELY CONNECTED TO SAID COUNTER AND ADAPTED TO STOP MOVEMENT OF SAID FEED MECHANISM, MEANS FOR ENERGIZING SAID CONTROL MEANS, SAID CONTROL MEANS INCLUDING A DELAY MECHANISM FOR MAINTAINING SUCH MEANS INOPERATIVE NOTWITHSTANDING SUCH ENERGIZATION UNTIL THE SLICING OF THE LAST SLICE OF SAID PREDETERMINED NUMBER AND THEN OPERATING TO STOP MOVEMENT OF SAID FEED MECHANISM UNTIL DE-ENERGIZATION OF SAID CONTROL MEANS. 